Transforming Business Success through Employee Happiness

Transcript

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Welcome to Transacting Value, where we talk about practical applications for personal values when dealing with each other and even within ourselves.

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Where we foster a podcast listening experience that lets you hear the power of a value system for managing burnout, establishing boundaries and finding belonging.

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My name is Josh Porthouse, I'm your host and we are your people.

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This is why values still hold value.

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This is Transacting Value.

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It's a win for the employer to focus on the employee's happiness.

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They get much better outcomes.

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One of the things I wish we would do.

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I wish every CEO in the country would just stop thinking about Wall Street, stop thinking about investors, stop thinking about the people who are juggling with your stock price.

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Just focus on your employees.

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Your employees will take care of your customers and when your customers are taken care of, your business will do better, and you know what that will make Wall Street happy.

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All righty folks.

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Welcome back to Transacting Value, where we're encouraging dialogue from different perspectives to unite over shared values.

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Our theme for season four is intrinsic values, so what your character is doing when you look yourself in the mirror.

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Now, if you're new to the podcast, welcome, and if you're a continuing listener, welcome back.

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Today we're talking our September core values of bravery.

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Welcome back.

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Today we're talking our September core values of bravery, courage and patriotism with author, speaker and all things focal point of speakhappiness.

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com, Valerie Alexander.

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Valerie's committed to expanding happiness and inclusion in all communities.

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She's a globally recognized speaker on the topics of happiness in the workplace, the advancement of women and unconscious bias, and her TED Talk, how to Outsmart your Own Unconscious Bias, has been viewed over half a million times.

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Folks, without further ado, I'm Porter, I'm your host and this is Transacting Value.

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Valerie, how you doing.

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Porter, I'm excited to be here.

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I appreciate it.

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There's a lot of things, I think, that take up our, our workday or, in this case, the middle of your afternoon, but I appreciate you making some time so we can talk a little bit.

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It's always good to stop and have conversations around the ideas that sort of plague.

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All of us almost Everyone I know wants unity in the country.

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The most people I know are just good people.

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Unity in the country.

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The most people I know are just good people, and it's really hard to see that we have this crazy divisiveness happening around topics that we all really are much more connected about than we think.

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So I'm happy to have this conversation.

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This is sort of it's funny.

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You said the middle of my workday.

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This is my work, so this is just something else on the work schedule.

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Well, that makes it pretty convenient, you know.

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It's interesting too, though you brought up that point about unity.

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I think, of all the topics a lot of people have in common or in my opinion, everybody has in common is having a value system or making decisions based off of, or in alignment with, a value system.

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But it's not usually that exciting, right, because everybody experiences it or you just don't think about it.

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So it sort of breeds its own complacency and conversation, and people look for things that are more exciting, to listen to, things that are going to give I don't know a little bit more social currency or a little bit more entertainment, value or something.

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And outside of what, maybe a high school civics class and this podcast, there aren't many other pointed conversations talking about value systems.

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So here's an opportunity that it gives us also, aside from just decompression from, maybe, your regular workplace schedules.

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For the majority of the millennials and even some of the Gen Zers that are listening to this podcast, you can have both right.

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You can have a pretty solid conversation about values and character development and actually learn something.

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That's entertaining too.

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Here's where I'd like to get started as far as this conversation goes For everybody who's new to the podcast.

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Valerie and I are talking on a video call, so, valerie, nobody else can see you right now.

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So for a little bit of relationship building who are you, where are you from and what sort of things have shaped your perspective?

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I was born at the Army War College, so, born into the military, my dad was doing intelligence during the Vietnam War and then he went from there to work for IBM and so we moved every year when I was growing up until my parents' divorce, and after that I wound up in Indiana, in a small town called New Albany, indiana, which was not the most open-minded and friendly to all identities kind of place.

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I left there when I was 17.

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I went to college in San Antonio, texas, at Trinity, and then I went to law school and graduate school at Berkeley, and then I started practicing law in the Silicon Valley, right at the height of the internet boom, the the first time, right when people still didn't know what the word internet meant.

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I was working in it.

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That was great, and so I went very quickly from law to venture capital to investment banking.

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I became the executive at an internet startup company and then my mom got sick.

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She had a brain tumor and I was done Silicon Valley.

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I was just everything about it and I could see the bubble about to burst.

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The writing was on the wall.

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People were investing in nothingness.

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My startup that I was the vice president of business development for was not going anywhere and so I just chucked it all.

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I sold my house, I sold my car, I gave away all my furniture it was two suitcases and my dog I got on a plane.

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I went back to Indiana.

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I took care of my mom for a year and that was great.

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That was probably one of the best years of my life and in fact I am leaving on Friday to go back to see my mom again.

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So that was 23 years ago.

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She's still with us.

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She's still, I can't say, healthy, but she's still striving today.

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So I can't say healthy, but she's still striving today.

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So when she got fully better and I was ready to get back to my life, I wasn't going back to the Silicon Valley, partly because, well clearly, when I left, it fell apart.

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The bubble burst very shortly after my departure Not that had anything to do with it, but there was nothing to go back to.

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So I instead moved to Hollywood and I started making movies.

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I instead moved to Hollywood and I started making movies.

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And I gave myself two years to make money as a filmmaker and a year and 10 months later I was sitting in Joel Schumacher's living room selling a script and I had a very fun, very exciting career as a screenwriter for a while.

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But I wrote that script for Joel Schumacher and it never got made.

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And then my next job was writing a movie for Catherine Zeta-Jones.

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That never got made.

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And then I was creating a TV series for Ice Cube.

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That never got made.

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And then my union went on strike, which we're on right now as we record this.

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Hopefully, by the time this is broadcast, the union is no longer on strike, but the writers union is on strike as we're recording this.

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So everything comes full.

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Everything repeats in history.

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But during the strike I started writing books.

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I wrote a book about happiness.

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I wrote a book about success.

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I wrote a book about the advancement of women in the workplace.

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And then I started getting asked to speak on the topics of my books and that was wonderful and I really enjoyed speaking.

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And then, in 2016, I started a tech company.

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Again, I went back to my high tech, the Silicon Valley startup roots.

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I started a tech company that built communication tools to help people communicate better with the people they love, and it was wonderful.

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And for we went through all the ups and downs of being a tech company.

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We were in the process of being acquired by a company that they didn't survive their own downturn I guess that's the best way to put it so we weren't acquired and we just went away.

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That happened in 2019, and then the pandemic in 2020 and then kovat.

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So it was a lot of ups and downs, but one of the best things that happened when I was the CEO of my tech company, I was asked to give a TED Talk on being a female CEO over 40 at a startup, and that TED Talk is how to outsmart your own unconscious bias, and it's gotten a lot of attention around the world.

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It's used in classrooms.

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Every once in a while, on LinkedIn, a dozen kids from the same high school or from the same college will suddenly link to me and I'm like, oh, they played my TED talk in your class and then, as a result of that, I did a lot of deep dive into the brain, science behind bias, into equity and inclusion, and I got some certifications in culture and equity and inclusion and I have really enjoyed the last two years getting to work with really some of the largest corporations in the world several Fortune 100 companies on both equity and inclusion, which matters deeply to me, and on corporate culture and happiness in the workplace.

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And that's the part that I'm really gravitating towards focusing on a lot more for a variety of reasons, and one of which is there are so many exceptional service providers in the equity and inclusion space and I just don't see as many people gravitating towards improving corporate culture and creating happier workplaces.

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And happier workplaces that's the greatest cost cutting hacks there is.

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If your workplace is happy, if your workforce is happy, you're going to save hundreds of millions of dollars.

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I wish the largest companies in the world would realize this.

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So I'm moving more towards that as I grow in my career.

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What a wild story, and all just in the last decade.

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Really in the last two decades.

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So I mean that doesn't decrease the impact, though that's true.

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Life for me is a party with a lot of hors d'oeuvres.

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There you go.

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Yeah, sometimes you just you just got to take samples and you appreciate them when you get them.

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And it might be great, the sample might be great, but that doesn't mean that's the only thing you're ever going to want to try.

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Oh, the sample might be great, but that doesn't mean that's the only thing you're ever going to want to try.

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Oh man, Amen.

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Personal growth is such a complicated thing, but I'll tell you when it comes to snacks.

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I 100 percent agree with you.

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Great, yeah, no, but but seriously, there's.

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There's a lot of stuff you just brought up and to try to succinctly unpack it, this is where I like to start Taking all of that, tabling it for one second, shaping your perspective to this point in your life, accounting for all of those variables, all the people you've worked with successful projects, not as successful projects, moving throughout the country, and then obviously, all the life stressors that come with all of those things.

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I think it's important to understand that we can't run from our problems and challenges and difficulties.

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We can ignore them for a little bit, we can delay their impact a little bit till we're ready to process, but we can't ignore them forever Because, like you said, it's circular More often than not, this race.

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I think, as humans, that we start running with ourselves or maybe in competition with anybody else.

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If you kick up enough dust, you forget that tracks a circle.

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But it is all the time, and so, to set the foundation for a little bit more clarity in this conversation, this is a segment of the show called Developing Character.

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Developing Character.

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I'll ask you two questions, both from your perspective and for everybody listening.

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If you're new to the podcast Valerie, as in-depth and vulnerable as you would like to be, it's totally up to you.

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But two questions.

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This first question all about personal values.

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What were some of your values growing up?

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This is so funny.

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I just had this conversation with my husband this morning over breakfast.

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We were talking, we were at a party for Fourth of of July and there were some classmates of his from his college class who he remembered and they didn't remember him and that's the first time that's ever happened to him and we were having this whole conversation around who remembers you and who do you remember?

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And I had a girl I went to high school with, reached out to me on Facebook maybe two years ago and she was from a very poor family and we were also pretty poor but there's degrees of poor, right and she reminded me.

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She said I just wanted to let you know.

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I will never forget that the only reason I got to go to senior prom is because you gave me one of your dresses and that always meant the world to me because I had gone to my junior prom and I had a dress for that and so I have a different dress for the senior prom, and so I gave her my dress for junior prom and I had no memory of this.

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I had no recollection of having done that and I remember this girl, but I don't remember doing that.

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And I was talking to my husband about that and he said that's because generosity is your baseline.

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He's like that's because it doesn't even occur to you that giving away something of yours that you're not using anymore, that someone else needs or wants, is actually an act of doing something of kindness.

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And I think probably my core value is spreading the wealth is sharing.

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I can't fathom hoarding.

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You're never, ever going to see me with a $5,000 purse ever.

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You're never going to see me with a thousand dollar purse.

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If I have a thousand dollars to spend on a purse, at most, very most, I might spend a hundred dollars on a purse and then $900 is going to some charity or some cause or to help somebody out who can't pay their bills Like I can't.

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That's my value system.

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The core is I also I'm quite frugal, so I will save money as much as possible and I try to spread that to other people too.

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If I see like a way to get something for free, I will share it with my friends and say use this, try this.

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Some people find that off, you know.

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They make fun of it a little bit, and I've actually had to cut some friends out of my life because they I grew up both Jewish and Catholic.

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I, my mom's Irish Catholic, my dad's Russian Jew.

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My mom is where I get all my frugality from.

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The Irish Catholics can sure teach you how to save your money for pinch of money in much more than the Jewish side of my family ever did.

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But I had former friends who equated my frugality with me being Jewish, and I would.

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I had to shut those people out of my life right away.

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So I would say my core values making sure everybody's taken care of.

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I couldn't be at a table where that table is full of food and there's another table with no food and say, well, we have ours, like I, just that's.

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I could just never be that.

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So that's making sure everyone's taken care of is probably the number one core value.

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And then just not ever judging anyone on a core identity and not ever allowing anyone else to judge me on a core identity is probably the second big one.

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Growing up or at present, or both At present, for sure, definitely, the making sure everybody had something was since childhood, since three years old.

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If I had a donut and someone else didn't have a donut, I broke my donut in half and gave it to them.

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I don't know where that came from, but that's always been who I was, so my whole life.

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But the owning my identities and not letting people diminish me because of them and much, much, much more importantly, taking away my own implicit biases but much more shortcut beliefs, is the best way to put it.

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The taking away my own shortcut beliefs around people because they're of a certain social class or of a certain race or of a certain nationality.

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That took a lot of work.

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That has taken work throughout my entire adult life to be the person who sees an individual as an individual and to not reduce them to a single identity.

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But I will share with you that when I still can't get over as people who were born wealthy, I just have some judgments there that I just can't lose If everything was given to you from birth.

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Fair.

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Fair, but you're talking about in this case at least, you're talking about money, right, but I think there's a lot to be said for missing out I don't want to say missing out A lack of awareness around the struggle you're also born into.

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Alrighty folks, stay tight and we'll be right back on Transacting Value.

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Did you know that children who do chores to earn their allowance have more respect for finance and more of a drive for financial independence?

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A wise man learns from the mistakes of others.

00:16:31.778 --> 00:16:34.116
A foolish man learns from his own.

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In this case at least, you're talking about money, right, but I think there's a lot to be said for missing out.

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I don't want to say missing out A lack of awareness around the struggle you're also born into, out.

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I don't want to say missing out a lack of awareness around the struggle you're also born into.

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And I don't mean like a privileged struggle, I mean it's like I grew up on the streets.

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You don't know what I came from, right or well, I didn't grow up on the streets but my family paved the roads.

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Or I didn't grow up on the streets, I didn't deal with the construction, but I certainly drove on them every day and with no AC.

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Right, everybody's got a thing.

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But your perspective and how you view the world, at least in the beginning, I think a lot of that is caught and then taught.

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Whatever it is, maybe it's money management as an example, or how you treat other people as another example, and then anywhere in between on that scale, you still pick it up from who surrounds you.

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So there might be plenty of wealthy people, wealthy parents, families, whatever that donate 80% of their wealth to charity and are philanthropists.

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One thing you brought up, though not explicitly just to counter your points, but one thing that you brought up was about let's call it pattern recognition, right, this removing bias around people.

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I think earlier on I don't know, centuries, I'm guessing people relied on what they saw for safety in an environment, and I think now, maybe not necessarily with spears and tigers, everywhere we go or wherever environment that would make sense, but we're still looking for safety in an environment.

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Otherwise, there wouldn't be groups on Facebook, there wouldn't be spaces on Twitter, there wouldn't be spaces on Twitter, there wouldn't be all these other things where we can come together and try to share some of these experiences.

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And I assume, as a screenwriter, you have to rely on some of these patterns and biases to effectively create depth in your characters, though right, or at least relatability in your characters.

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To go back a little further what you're saying.

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Our brain takes instant shortcuts.

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This is what my TED talk is about.

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Is the brain science behind bias.

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And you're right.

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We had to know instantaneously who was in the in group and who was in the out group Back when tribes just killed each other for their resources.

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You had to know instantly if somebody walking towards you was not in your tribe, because if they weren't, and they were there to literally kill you and take your food.

00:18:47.721 --> 00:18:53.213
And so our brain still has that reaction to someone who is not in our tribe.

00:18:53.213 --> 00:19:03.673
We go into fight or flight long before our prefrontal cortex makes the decision to say, oh no, this person is might be just like me, or this is a potential friend, or I shouldn't be making judgments Too late.

00:19:03.673 --> 00:19:13.740
Cortisol is racing through your bloodstream, your muscles are tensing, you're ready to attack and protect your food, and so those are the things we actually have to actively fight to overcome.

00:19:13.740 --> 00:19:30.357
The funny thing is you said about it being a screenwriter is screenwriters who are doing it right now, in 2023, who are doing getting it right, are the ones who are stopping themselves from saying, oh, my character is black, I'll make her a single mom, but that?

00:19:30.397 --> 00:19:35.817
you know, follows into a stereotype that actually doesn't create that interesting a character.

00:19:35.817 --> 00:19:44.035
And these are the things that not only in good screenwriting do you have to create depth of character by saying what would this person's lived experience be?

00:19:44.035 --> 00:19:48.707
How can I make it different, what would it be like to be this person in this environment?

00:19:48.707 --> 00:19:52.618
And then tweak it a little to make that more interesting, give them a greater depth.

00:19:52.618 --> 00:20:07.012
But also we are now blissfully I am happy about this, although it's keep backpedaling or backlashing on it, but we're at a point where even as a's a small microcosm of the audience aren't tolerating it as much.

00:20:07.714 --> 00:20:16.862
Your audience is looking at the content you're creating and saying I'm sorry, why could every woman in your movie be replaced with a sexy lamp?

00:20:16.862 --> 00:20:18.131
And it doesn't change the story.

00:20:18.131 --> 00:20:27.766
And so I hope that our new cultural awareness is pushing screenwriting farther.

00:20:27.766 --> 00:20:29.917
I'm not seeing it as much as I would like.

00:20:29.917 --> 00:20:43.703
I still see filmed content all the time where every woman she's either a mom type character or a whore, and it's like, wow, can we have female characters who have depth and points of view and agency over their own actions?

00:20:43.703 --> 00:20:44.653
And I'm trying to remember.

00:20:44.653 --> 00:20:47.394
I just saw a movie like that and I was so disappointed.

00:20:48.038 --> 00:20:53.601
Shrek Fiona actually, yeah, she took her identity more authentically.

00:20:53.601 --> 00:20:54.522
Yeah, for sure.

00:20:55.349 --> 00:20:57.017
But more importantly, she has agency.

00:20:57.017 --> 00:21:04.453
She's making decisions that affect the outcome of another character's story, right, Well, agency is a better word, yeah.

00:21:04.453 --> 00:21:08.736
Yeah, now that I've brought it up, you're going to notice it and maybe I'm cursing you.

00:21:08.736 --> 00:21:18.810
You will notice how many times you're watching a movie or TV show and you're like, wow, none of the female characters in this have been granted the right to make a decision that has an effect on anyone else's story.

00:21:19.030 --> 00:21:22.295
Well, so that's the lamp analogy I wanted to jump on real quick.

00:21:22.295 --> 00:21:26.238
Yeah, let me just clarify this for anybody listening I have zero design taste.

00:21:26.238 --> 00:21:30.122
Okay, so this, this has nothing to do with aesthetics, strictly.

00:21:30.122 --> 00:21:45.378
The analogy you just brought up, though, right, if you can replace any or all, I guess, of the characters in a script, a show, a book, fill in the blank here, where you're creating a character arc with an inanimate object of any kind, then it really doesn't matter how you personify it.

00:21:45.378 --> 00:21:46.279
It could be anybody.

00:21:46.380 --> 00:21:57.499
It's the depth that makes the difference, and when we're talking about I guess you would call it human experience, I think what's cool is everybody's experiencing the same things just from a different perspective.

00:21:57.499 --> 00:22:00.028
It's like the what was that movie?

00:22:00.028 --> 00:22:12.432
Maybe it was Denzel Washington Vantage Point or something like that that where it was like this one murder attempt, I think, and then it got retold from a few different perspectives, but it was all the same scene for the whole movie.

00:22:12.432 --> 00:22:30.896
Snatch is sort of another example, and I think when we're thinking through, okay, how do we portray or how do we build relationships and relevance to characters and stories we create, and relevance to characters and stories we create or in groups where we find ourselves maybe assimilating or growing into throughout our lives.

00:22:30.896 --> 00:22:35.494
We don't always have to stand on the similar experiences with that group.

00:22:36.076 --> 00:22:41.778
Sometimes the similar experiences just as being a human involve that degree of depth.

00:22:41.778 --> 00:22:45.130
All right, folks sit tight and we'll be right back on Transacting Value.

00:22:45.130 --> 00:22:51.269
That degree of depth All right, folks sit tight and we'll be right back on Transacting Value.

00:22:51.269 --> 00:22:59.030
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We don't always have to stand on the similar experiences with that group.

00:23:49.721 --> 00:23:56.002
Sometimes the similar experiences just as being a human involve that degree of depth.

00:23:56.002 --> 00:24:04.065
Emotions for example, being frustrated and angry and sad and happy doesn't have to be relegated to any particular experience.

00:24:04.065 --> 00:24:06.835
I think what that might do, though.

00:24:06.835 --> 00:24:07.917
What do you think about?

00:24:08.298 --> 00:24:10.804
When you were on stage, you talked to an audience.

00:24:10.804 --> 00:24:12.896
It was a live audience for your TED Talk.

00:24:12.896 --> 00:24:16.780
So when you're on stage, you've got to build that relationship with the audience.

00:24:16.780 --> 00:24:19.900
That's just part of oration and rhetoric, I guess.

00:24:19.900 --> 00:24:24.099
How do you build that relationship when you don't know everybody's backgrounds?

00:24:24.099 --> 00:24:24.902
What did you stand on?

00:24:26.413 --> 00:24:48.480
The TED Talk you you'll see opens with a little bit of a mind trick with the audience, where I take them on a little bit of a journey and then upend it for them and it's a big eye opener, it's a big awakening moment and that then they're suddenly leaning in because they realize they got caught up in this too and they now have to pay attention to what just happened.

00:24:48.480 --> 00:24:59.980
When I'm speaking about happiness in the workplace, when I'm speaking about the advancement of women and I guide a lot of other speakers this is, I guess, when it goes back to the whole helping and generosity.

00:24:59.980 --> 00:25:03.721
I've never charged anyone for helping them arrange a talk.

00:25:03.721 --> 00:25:04.953
I can't imagine doing that.

00:25:04.953 --> 00:25:06.038
I would feel very weird.

00:25:06.038 --> 00:25:10.134
But I help a lot of other speakers get their talks in shape, especially TED Talks.

00:25:11.171 --> 00:25:24.499
And the one tip I always give speakers and it's true, whether you're on a stage or whether you're just at a party sharing a story you want to transport your listener to that moment in your life.

00:25:24.630 --> 00:25:47.278
That is the reason you're telling the story as soon as you do that, as soon as you can transport somebody, and so that's why you don't start your story about, I don't know, getting mistaken for a celebrity in a restaurant doesn't start with you getting dressed to go to the restaurant and getting in your car because you're not transporting that moment.

00:25:47.278 --> 00:26:00.011
So when I talk about happiness in the workplace, I open with a slide of the restaurant in San Antonio, texas, where I was a waitress and I say this is the Hilton Palacio Del Rio.

00:26:00.011 --> 00:26:02.720
These are the busiest 16 tables on the property.

00:26:02.720 --> 00:26:11.300
The Hilton saves money by having these 16 tables be serviced by two waitresses and a busboy, which makes it impossible to give great service.

00:26:11.300 --> 00:26:17.663
And I would know because one sweltering summer in San Antonio, texas, I was one of those waitresses.

00:26:17.663 --> 00:26:21.759
Yeah, and as soon as I say that, people are suddenly like wait what?

00:26:22.140 --> 00:26:22.401
Yeah.

00:26:23.251 --> 00:26:36.023
And then I continue with the story of hearing the hotel when, at one night that was so miserable I won't go into the details there was some awful decision making at leadership level that made it literally impossible for me to serve the tables I was supposed to be servicing.

00:26:36.023 --> 00:26:37.816
Everybody was having a terrible time.

00:26:37.816 --> 00:26:39.998
I was having a terrible time, our diners were.

00:26:39.998 --> 00:26:41.732
I was getting stiffed on checks.

00:26:41.732 --> 00:26:56.898
It was a nightmare because of this policy decision that when my manager, who knew I was right and they were wrong, said to the hotel assistant manager if we do this, valerie is not going to be very happy, his response was why should I care if some waitress is happy?

00:26:57.380 --> 00:26:57.560
Hey.

00:26:57.560 --> 00:27:04.843
Ok, there's moments like that where you've got to weigh out do I need my livelihood or my self-respect more?

00:27:04.843 --> 00:27:07.195
And I think it counts for a lot.

00:27:07.195 --> 00:27:08.961
And when you're selling it to people, though.

00:27:08.961 --> 00:27:10.554
So let me back up.

00:27:10.574 --> 00:27:25.943
I guess, for anybody new to the podcast, I'm active duty in the Marine Corps and I spent most of my time in the infantry, where now my role is essentially instructing Marines and some sailors on occasion how to better communicate, based on my experiences in the infantry training deployments.

00:27:25.943 --> 00:27:29.419
Whatever for some of their deployments and some of their training and these opportunities, right.

00:27:29.419 --> 00:27:31.114
So that's where a lot of my perspective is coming from.

00:27:31.114 --> 00:27:41.801
So, valerie, when we talk about points like this, we consider it more of like a benefits methodology, right, where you more deliberately think through what's the benefit to somebody else If I say something this way?

00:27:41.801 --> 00:27:45.054
How do I bring them around to my perspective and my point of view.

00:27:45.054 --> 00:27:49.892
Had that manager responded differently, I assume there would have been a better or at least a different outcome, right.

00:27:49.892 --> 00:27:56.112
And so when I assume you have to consider this for unconscious bias as well, right.

00:27:56.112 --> 00:27:57.694
How do you view this concept?

00:27:58.376 --> 00:27:59.117
I have to share with you.

00:27:59.117 --> 00:28:04.094
I have actually never had somebody ask me that in that way.

00:28:04.094 --> 00:28:18.200
Had the hotel assistant manager if, instead of saying what he said, if he had come to me and said I am so sorry you're in this situation, there is nothing we can do about it, please let's get through this night and we'll make it up to you some other time.

00:28:18.200 --> 00:28:27.556
If he had said that I would have been employed there at the end of the night which I was not at the end of that night, but I'm very appreciative of that night, but I'm very appreciative of that perspective.

00:28:27.556 --> 00:28:30.005
I love couching it in the benefit.

00:28:30.005 --> 00:28:33.155
What is going to be the benefit to the other person of how I communicate this?

00:28:33.155 --> 00:28:37.714
What is the benefit to me Because that is the work I do in workplace happiness.

00:28:37.714 --> 00:28:47.172
I had a CEO say to me once all the problems I have on my plate now I got to worry about whether my people are happy and I said no, just the ones you want to keep.

00:28:48.694 --> 00:28:51.760
And we have an epidemic in this country.

00:28:51.760 --> 00:28:55.355
I have a phrase I'm trademarking called accidental managers.

00:28:55.355 --> 00:28:57.501
We have an epidemic of accidental managers.

00:28:57.501 --> 00:29:07.180
We put people in charge of other people without making sure they have any of the skills to do it, or we put them in charge of other people without even acknowledging they're in charge of other people.

00:29:07.180 --> 00:29:09.887
I an example I have is a doctor.

00:29:09.887 --> 00:29:12.714
Doctors never think of themselves as managers.

00:29:12.714 --> 00:29:16.462
In one surgery, how many people answer to a single doctor?

00:29:17.152 --> 00:29:18.056
Oh, I don't know A dozen.

00:29:18.116 --> 00:29:20.769
That doctor has never gotten any managerial training.

00:29:21.329 --> 00:29:22.172
Ah, yeah.

00:29:22.192 --> 00:29:22.413
Yeah.

00:29:22.413 --> 00:29:23.957
So it's a crazy.

00:29:23.957 --> 00:29:26.830
It's crazy that we don't think of an engineer as a manager.

00:29:26.830 --> 00:29:27.313
We don't think about.

00:29:27.313 --> 00:29:34.964
I did a event at a university once where I was training their faculty and staff on happiness and I asked who in the room is a manager?

00:29:34.964 --> 00:29:40.832
And only a dozen people raised their hands and there were these chemistry professors at a research university and I said, oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't realize.

00:29:40.832 --> 00:29:41.713
None of you has a lab.

00:29:41.713 --> 00:29:43.257
And they were very offended.

00:29:43.257 --> 00:29:44.318
They were like we all have labs.

00:29:44.318 --> 00:29:44.819
What do you mean?

00:29:44.819 --> 00:29:47.223
One of them had a lab that had 30 people in it.

00:29:47.223 --> 00:29:52.036
Like I said, you have 30 people working in a lab and you don't see yourself as a manager.

00:29:52.036 --> 00:29:54.122
It's insane.

00:29:54.122 --> 00:30:02.432
So when I talk about happiness in the workplace, it's not foosball tables or free lunch or any of that garbage, it's how do you speak to the people?

00:30:14.877 --> 00:30:16.788
All righty folks here at Transacting Value.

00:30:16.788 --> 00:30:26.316
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So when I talk about happiness in the workplace, it's not foosball tables or free lunch or any of that garbage.

00:31:42.477 --> 00:31:46.167
It's how do you speak to the people whose buy-in you need.

00:31:46.167 --> 00:31:54.381
And so when we're talking about the work you do, there are only three things that matter in how much we love our jobs.

00:31:54.381 --> 00:31:55.788
There's only three things that matter.

00:31:55.788 --> 00:32:01.618
Do we get a sense of accomplishment from doing it, which is the same as saying do we feel like we're putting our skills to their use?

00:32:01.618 --> 00:32:03.528
Do we feel like we're making a difference in the world?

00:32:03.528 --> 00:32:07.786
If you get a sense of accomplishment from your job, that is just about all.

00:32:07.786 --> 00:32:10.971
You need to love that job to go back every day.

00:32:10.971 --> 00:32:15.651
One of the reasons I hated being a waitress at the Hilton is because they made me feel like I was bad at it every day.

00:32:15.651 --> 00:32:17.912
The other thing we need is autonomy.

00:32:18.545 --> 00:32:23.431
Nobody wants to be told how to do every single part of their job once they already know how to do it.

00:32:23.431 --> 00:32:26.134
People want to be creative in how they do their job.

00:32:26.134 --> 00:32:33.915
If there's a method of doing something and you have come up with a little shortcut or a little way of doing it or something that's just more convenient or comfortable for you.

00:32:33.915 --> 00:32:39.113
You want the freedom to be able to do that, especially if it doesn't cause any worse outcome at the end.

00:32:39.113 --> 00:32:40.856
And then people want acknowledgement.

00:32:41.384 --> 00:32:42.369
So I call it AAA.

00:32:42.369 --> 00:32:44.116
You call AAA when your car breaks down.

00:32:44.116 --> 00:32:46.165
Call AAA when your company breaks down.

00:32:46.165 --> 00:32:55.928
Make sure everybody who answers to you gets a sense of accomplishment, has autonomy and gets your acknowledgement that they're doing their job well.

00:32:55.928 --> 00:33:01.386
And if you do those three things, you have the army marching into battle with you.

00:33:01.386 --> 00:33:09.054
You have your team following you into battle because they feel like there's a purpose to what they're doing and that they are an integral part of that purpose.

00:33:09.054 --> 00:33:16.385
They feel that their understanding of their role is respected and their views are believed.

00:33:16.385 --> 00:33:19.153
And then they feel like someone sees them doing it.

00:33:19.153 --> 00:33:29.599
And if you can give someone those three things, you are going to have a loyal, unstoppable, highly successful team.

00:33:30.365 --> 00:33:36.333
Okay, but that's got to be a mutual loyalty too, though it goes both ways, and we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, I think.

00:33:36.333 --> 00:33:50.730
But having, let's say, the opportunity to increase loyalty, decrease turnover, decrease attrition in a workplace environment, you obviously have to back your employees and support them, sort of like what you just brought up, but the buy-in has to be there.

00:33:50.730 --> 00:33:55.467
The incentivized atmosphere has to be there for the employees as well.

00:33:55.467 --> 00:33:56.671
There's a quote you brought up.

00:33:56.671 --> 00:33:57.794
I think that fits us pretty well.

00:33:57.794 --> 00:34:00.394
You said that dollars are worth less than hours.

00:34:00.394 --> 00:34:03.626
Yes, I say that all the time, and it's great.

00:34:03.626 --> 00:34:14.217
If you have the opportunity to I don't know offer somebody a pay raise, why not couple that with paid time off instead of just increased money?

00:34:14.764 --> 00:34:20.793
I look at it like this and this is one of the things that we talk about actually a lot is, everybody wants not necessarily to be heard.

00:34:20.793 --> 00:34:30.090
A lot of people are more content not being in the spotlight, but they want to feel that their opinions have value, and being listened to and being heard are not necessarily the same things.

00:34:30.090 --> 00:34:41.389
And being able to have those opportunities from a managerial perspective or even more, I think a little bit in your case, as a consulting sort of opportunity is invaluable.

00:34:41.389 --> 00:34:45.246
This is really, I guess, for the sake of time, one of the last questions I have for you.

00:34:45.246 --> 00:34:51.007
But how do you convey that mindset let's just call it dollars being worth less than hours?

00:34:51.007 --> 00:34:55.096
How do you convey that to managers for appreciation and being able to convey acknowledgement?

00:34:55.096 --> 00:34:57.201
How do you instigate to educate?

00:34:57.802 --> 00:35:04.717
There are irrefutable stats statistics on this about how much better you do when your employees are happy.

00:35:04.717 --> 00:35:15.208
You have lower turnover, lower absenteeism, lower workers' compensation claims, less liability, fewer product defects, fewer medical malpractice issues when your employees are happy.

00:35:15.208 --> 00:35:19.347
So one of the ways I convey it to management is just straight up this is better for you.

00:35:19.347 --> 00:35:21.813
You will get better outcomes.

00:35:21.813 --> 00:35:23.516
Just pay attention to this.

00:35:23.516 --> 00:35:27.297
This is all people need and I absolutely live by the.

00:35:27.297 --> 00:35:42.891
You cannot expect to get people to trade their hours for dollars and because it's a limited number of hours and you have to give them something that makes filling those hours seem worth it, it's a win for the employer to focus on the employee's happiness.

00:35:42.891 --> 00:35:45.637
They get much better outcomes.

00:35:46.105 --> 00:35:47.648
One of the things I wish we would do.

00:35:47.648 --> 00:35:51.786
Oh, I wish every CEO in the country would just stop thinking about wall street.

00:35:51.786 --> 00:35:53.487
Stop thinking about investors.

00:35:53.487 --> 00:35:56.811
Stop thinking about the people who are juggling with your stock price.

00:35:56.811 --> 00:35:59.353
Just focus on your employees.

00:35:59.353 --> 00:36:06.961
Your employees will take care of your customers and when your customers are taken care of, your business will do better, and you know what that will make Wall Street happy.

00:36:12.304 --> 00:36:16.025
So don't start with trying to make Wall Street happy and therefore make everybody miserable in the process and we've seen this happen with Southwest Airlines in the last decade.

00:36:16.025 --> 00:36:28.280
We've seen this happen with Six Flags Entertainment in the last decade they lost their focus on their employees and their guests or their customers, and they started focusing on Wall Street and they destroyed really valuable brands as a result.

00:36:28.280 --> 00:36:50.690
The way you get management to buy in is to just say here are the costs, here is where you're losing out to your competition, here is where you are losing out to your competition for better employees and here is where the values of your company are disappearing, because you don't have managers who understand.

00:36:50.690 --> 00:37:03.568
We have a department called human resources and somehow we only focus on the resources part of that of turning human beings into resources, and we need to focus on the human part of it.

00:37:03.568 --> 00:37:05.393
And you just said something fantastic.

00:37:05.434 --> 00:37:19.815
There is a difference between being listened to and being heard, and when I do corporate culture assessments, when a company will bring me in for a month, I'll spend two weeks speaking to a huge range of employees and then I'll create some reporting for that in third week.

00:37:19.815 --> 00:37:29.891
And then the fourth week is going back on site sharing all the results with management and then doing some managerial training for the people who are getting it wrong, and I can't tell you how many times.

00:37:29.891 --> 00:37:52.010
In those that first two weeks, literally, somebody will be telling me something and I'm writing it down and I'll ask a follow-up question and they will start to cry because they said I've been telling them this for the last six months, over the last 10 years, and nobody's ever even understood what I was saying until now all right, folks sit tight and we'll be right back on Transacting Value.

00:37:56.795 --> 00:38:13.822
Are you a marketer, brand strategist, ceo or podcast fan at work seeing the benefit and profitability that podcast advertising can bring to your business, noticing that billion-dollar valuation that advertising through a podcast can convey?

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Or maybe you're just missing out on the millions of listeners to audio podcasts and wondering how do I reach that market segment?

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Recapitalize your wealth generating strategy with add value through SDYT Media.

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Turn your business marketing gaps into added value.

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We'll work with your marketing team to highlight your brand's values, vision, mission and social governance with your product or service in a custom-designed audio-only, podcast-ready advertisement written and recorded in-house with our decentralized team.

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Don't just think of adding value.

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Work with SDYT Media to transact it.

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Here's some of our work featured in Season 4 of the podcast Transacting Value, and visit TransactingVvaluepodcastcom to read along in the transcripts too.

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